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During our discussions on the value of IT in #hkuiom, I often draw upon examples from my research regarding the role of IT in enabling radical innovation strategies. While the focus of the discussions is not innovation, I use the below mini-lecture video by David Kryscynski, my senior colleague from the Emory Doctoral Program, to provide students a brief overview this topic.

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One of my research papers was recently nominated as a candidate for the Best Paper award at the 2012 International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), the flagship conference and most prestigious gathering of information systems researchers in the world. Titled “Juggling Paradoxical Strategies: The Emergent Role of IT Capabilities”, the paper has been co-authored with Benn Konsynski, the George S. Craft Distinguished University Professor of Information Systems & Operations Management at Emory University. In this study, we assert that in the 21st century, different IT capabilities act in differing ways to individually and jointly enable or impede firms to simultaneously pursue paradoxical strategies as an emergent means of attaining competitive advantage.

Paper presentation at ICIS 2012

Such an ability to follow two conflicting strategies at the same time is termed organizational ambidexterity. Firms which concurrently engage in the paradoxical strategies of exploration (or radical innovation) and exploitation (or incremental innovation) are able to address the needs of new and existing customers and thereby attain higher competitive performance. Our research finds that Transform IT capability, which leads to redefining and recreating business practices, strongly supports this instance of ambidexterity. On the other hand, IT Informate Capability, which results in greater information access across the organization, and IT Automate Capability, which facilitates automation of existing business processes, both hamper ambidexterity by ossifying business processes and reducing flexibility. Transform IT capability reduces these harmful effects. Our findings also suggest that a balance of IT Automate, Informate and Transform capabilities enables organizational ambidexterity, hitherto a challenging competitive possibility.

Data for the study was gathered from 352 manufacturing firms of all sizes in high growth sectors in India – a setting that provides an exemplar for the world’s enterprises undergoing rapid changes in the 21st century. These findings not only showcase the emergent role of IT in facing the complexities inherent in juggling paradoxical strategies, but also throw light upon previously unexplained variance in IT payoffs in the emerging economy and small and medium enterprise contexts.

Good Business presents an infographic by Thomson Reuters that highlights the world’s most innovative countries and industries. They use more than patent count to come up with their measure of innovation. They combine patent success, reach, influence and volume to come up with a few surprises. The top 100 innovative companies in the world hail from just 9 countries – while the US leads the pack with 40% companies, Liechtenstein is 9th with 1 company on the list.

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India has a 22% share in the global engineering research and development(ER&D) outsourcing market, with current revenues of $10 billion expected to grow to $40 billion by the end of the decade. Hopefully, this export-oriented R&D will have spillover effects for local industry and help in improved manufacturing innovation for Indian firms, especially in fast growing sectors.

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With over 400 service providers employing nearly two lakh people and revenue of $9-10 billion, ER&D currently contributes 15 per cent of the $60 billion strong Indian IT-BPO export industry. During FY 2011, the cost savings by India-based ER&D Centres was over $20 billion.

Elaborating on sectors expected to have a bright future in India, Pandit said, “The Indian market is booming and as a country, we are no.1 when it comes to ER&D outsourcing. Sectors such as consumer electronics, automotive, energy, telecom and medical electronics have a great future.”

This infographic by focus.com showcases seven disruptive companies. Theoretically, disruptive innovation either creates a new market or creates a new market segment at the bottom / lower end of an existing market. These firms have caused a paradigm shift in their markets or challenged the status quo through their innovation.